A Wisconsin woman accused of choking a man to death and dismembering his body was seen smirking in court as witnesses recounted gruesome details about the murder.
Taylor Schabusiness, 25, is standing trial in Gray Bay on charges of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse and third-degree sexual assault in the death of 24-year-old Shad Thyrion. The victim’s decapitated head and genitals were found inside a bucket at his mother’s home on 23 February 2022.
Ms Schabusiness, who had been convicted of unrelated charges a month before the murder, has since reportedly admitted to law enforcement that she choked Thyrion during sex and proceeded to mutilate his body parts and carve out his organs. Her previous attempts to enter not-guilty pleas for reason of insanity have been unsuccessful.
Since her trial kicked off on Monday, disturbing details about the way Thyrion’s body parts were found have been revealed by prosecutors and witnesses. According to testimony shared by a detective who investigated the case and the medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Thyrion, Ms Schabusiness allegedly preserved his blood and then proceeded to shower with it before leaving the bucket with Thyrion’s body parts for his mother to find.
Earlier this year, the suspect had caused a stir in court when she charged at her own attorney after the judge ruled to delay her trial. In recent days, cameras inside the courtroom have also captured her smirking as investigators testify before jurors — at one point, she even appeared to make a making a “finger gun” gesture.
“There was a human head, there was genitalia in the bucket. What I would recognize as a penis and testicles,” Detective Philip Scanlan told the court on Tuesday.
Ms Schabusiness was also seen laughing when a friend of hers and Thyrion took the stand to testify before jurors about the day leading up to the murder.
Bodycam future showed in court showed Gray Bay Police Department Officers responding to the scene of the murder after Thyrion’s mother called 911. The officers appeared in shock as they inspected the basement of the home and found chunks of human flesh.
“I went downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs, to the right, there was a green bucket with a shower towel on top of it,” Officer Alex Wanish told the court, according to The New York Post. “Just to verify we had an actual head in the bucket, lifted the towel off and there was in fact a human head, severed head in the bucket.”
Taylor Schabusiness has been since smirking and laughing in her trial over the murder of 24-year-old Shad Thyrion— (Law & Crime network )
According to a criminal complaint filed by prosecutors, Ms Schabusiness picked up Thyrion from her mother’s home around 9.30pm on 21 February 2022. A friend of the couple joined them before they headed to an apartment where the three smoked marijuana.
Ms Schabusiness told police that she and Thyrion also smoked methamphetamine and injected Trazadone. She and Thyrion eventually returned to his mother’s home and spent the day there while she was away.
The alleged murderer claimed in an interview with police that she and Thyrion used chains to choke one another as foreplay. Thyrion reportedly laid face down in bed before Ms Schabusiness “went crazy” and repeatedly choked him despite the fact that he was coughing blood and turned purple.
Shad Thyrion was murdered and dismembered. His head was found inside a bucket by his mother on 23 February 2022— (Shad Thyrion/FB)
Green Bay Police Detective David Graf testified in court earlier this week that Ms Schabusiness allegedly admitted to enjoying the ordeal.
“Her response was that she liked it,” Detective Graf said, according to local news station WBAY.
Dane County Medical Examiner Dr Vincent Tranchida also testified in court about the lack of blood on the scene of the murder.
“We have decapitation, we have dismemberment, we have transection of the torso, subsequently internally the body has been eviscerated. In other words, we have entered inside the body through various cuts through the abdomen and between the ribs where the victim’s organs have been removed, largely one by one,” he told jurors.
The trial is slated to last just one week, with jurors expected to decide Ms Schabusiness’s fate on Friday.
If convicted on all charges, she will face life in prison as the death penalty is not legal in Wisconsin.
